


Feeling Alive

by witch_lit



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 17:59:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5385065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witch_lit/pseuds/witch_lit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec has one job and he intends to complete it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feeling Alive

**Author's Note:**

> So, here's the mandatory zombie!au. It's a warm up for what will hopefully be a fully formed story (but we'll have to see if I can finish Satellite first!). This was totally inspired by Dead Walker Texas Ranger by Sleeping With Sirens, which is a really great Zombie Song. Have fun, kids!

            “Izzy? Magnus? We’re running out of time,” Alec yells, not concerned about being quiet. The boarded up grocery store they’re in has already attracted all the danger it’s going to, and there’s only one entry point he’s really worried about. The front door, once paneled with wood to keep out unwanted guests, has been slowly stripped of its protection.

           Not even ten seconds after he yells for them, the sound of glass hitting the floor resounds through the mostly abandoned store. The shatter will tell his companions that they’ve got to get going if his voice hasn’t. Now, Alec has bigger problems to worry about.

            Alec pulls the string on his bow taught, launching an arrow. It spears the bloated, milky eye of the undead who has crashed into the grocery store. The zombie falls to the floor and its body thuds against the tile, not two feet from Alec. The quarters are too tight, crowded with unused shopping carts, for him to really use his bow again, he hardly has space to pull out a second arrow. The knife strapped to his thigh is too short to guarantee he won’t get bitten, making it a dangerous option. He needs his sister and his boyfriend to finish filling their packs so they can head out, taking any conflict to open space, where Alec works best.

            A second zombie jumps over the first one, its eyes hungry for Alec’s flesh. It comes at him quickly, as strong as any mortal. Alec steps out of its way at the last moment, swerving around the walking corpse. He launches a second arrow, and it hits his target. The eye is always the easiest pathway to neutralize the brain.

            Alec is about to turn back to the broken door when hands clench around his waist. He feels a moment of pure terror, and adrenaline rushes through his system. He’s pushed bodily onto the floor, and he falls. Not a second later, he’s face to face with a skull that looks like it has started melting. The scent of rot is overpowering, and dark hair clings limply to the creature’s slimy scalp. He tries to push it off, to scream for help, but it dives for him. Alec’s hand catches the blade on his thigh just as the zombie’s full weight hits him.

            Alec grips his dagger as tight as he can and jams it into the zombie’s neck. The zombie falls forward, and Alec switches their positions. He pushes with the blade as hard as he can. He hears a crack as the spine is disconnected under his blade, and feels a spray of blood hit his face. His arms ache. He grabs the hair of the zombie and pulls its head clean off its body.

            “Alec?”

            Alec turns around to see his sister, wide eyed, visually checking him for injuries. He gets off the zombie and throws the head out the window. He glances at his sister, then pushes a mostly empty rack of toy buckets and beach trinkets in front of the shattered glass door.

            “Don’t worry,” Alec says. “It’s not my blood.”

            “You didn’t get any in your mouth?” Magnus asks, appearing with three filled backpacks in his arms, asks.

            Alec shakes his head as he walks closer to the two. He’s careful not to touch either of them. “No. But I’ll need to clean it off soon.”

            Magnus nods. “We can find a house to stop off at on the way out of town.”

            Alec gives him a small smile. “Thanks. Did we get everything we need?”

            “Yup,” says Isabelle. “The canned goods weigh a _ton_ though, so they’re in your bag.”

            Alec rolls his eyes. “That was nice of you.”

            Isabelle smiles cheekily before standing on her tiptoes to ruffle his hair. “You love me.”

            Alec gives her a stern look, and then sighs. “Not that I know why.”

            “We’d better get going, before any other Z’s show up to party,” Magnus suggests. He’s right, of course. With Alec’s yelling, and the glass shattering, they’ve probably alerted all nearby zombies to their presence. It won’t be long before they’re all crawling to the abandoned grocery store, if there are any close enough. Alec kind of doubts it, with how small the town is, but it’s always best to be vigilant. A surprise zombie attack isn’t something they’d likely come back from.

            Magnus hands Alec a bursting backpack. Alec nearly drops it, surprised at how heavy it is. Isabelle apparently wasn’t joking about putting all of the heavy cans in his bag. This was a run for medical supplies, but they always take canned food when they can find it. He has to take off his quiver to accommodate the backpack, but he readjusts. His back aches from the weight of the bag already, and he’s barely had it on.

            “We didn’t park too far away, did we?” Alec asks. “It’s going to be hard to defend you two with all of this weighing me down.”

            Isabelle rolls her eyes. “We can take care of ourselves.”

            “I know,” Alec says, and he believes it. Having a guard on every mission is protocol, no matter how competent Izzy and Magnus are. “But I’m assigned protection detail. It’ll be my head if one of you doesn’t make it back. You two are some of our best scavengers.”

            Magnus winks, then blows him a kiss. “It isn’t too far, darling. I kept in mind your delicacy when choosing the parking space.”

            Alec grumbles at that, but he’s grateful. He doesn’t have to protect the while they’re in the car, so the sooner they get there, the better. He’s exhausted.

Alec leads them to the back of the grocery store, his bow ready to take out any surprise zombies. The store, dark except from the natural light spilling in from near the top of the building, would make for an excellent hunting ground. Some of the racks, nearly depleted from looting, are already smeared with the blood of the unsuspecting. Alec had taken care of a few trapped ‘interlopers’ when they’d first entered the place.

            Alec pulls ahead as they reach the employee entrance, where they had originally entered. Izzy’s machete is drawn and Magnus is gripping tight to his pistol as he opens the door. The door is thankfully silent, and Alec pops his head outside and looks both ways. The straps of Alec’s bag dig painfully into his shoulder as he twists to see if there are any zombies coming. He can’t see any, so Alec leads them out into the alleyway, an arrow notched and ready to fire.

            The town they’re in isn’t large enough to have a proper, truly creepy alleyway. Not like the New York City Alec and Isabelle had grown up with. Instead, there are four one-level stores between them and the main street. One of them is a town museum, though what’s special about this place, Alec doesn’t know.

            They spill out into the joke of an alley, and Alec honestly doesn’t remember what direction they came from. They don’t keep him on for his directional skills, because he couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag, but it doesn’t matter. Isabelle leads the way, weapon drawn as they pass the town museum.

            They walk for about five minutes before reaching their car. They encounter one zombie, whom Alec swiftly kills. It’s a little odd that there aren’t more of them, but it is a small town and Alec’s voice might have been muffled from inside the building. Or the zombies have decided alleyways are too sketchy, even for them. People have tried to mug Alec in alleyways enough times for him to understand the feeling.

            Alec dumps his backpack next to him in the car as he piles in the back. He grabs Isabelle and Magnus’s bags, piling them next to his own. The car roars to life as Magnus turns the key in the ignition, and Alec fights a flinch. They’ve done this dozens of times, but the load noise is enough to set Alec on alert.

Magnus pulls out of the town, and Alec lays down in the backseat. He rests his head on the piled bags, careful to arrange the bags so he’s not touching any zippers. They’ll have to clean them eventually, no matter what. He doesn’t want to get zombie blood on their food supply, even if it’s just the outside of the cans.

In the front seat, Isabelle’s fiddling with the radio and chatting with Magnus. It reminds Alec that they’re still alive, that the world isn’t completely lost. He falls asleep as Magnus passes a sign that cheerfully declares, Willisville, population 937.

            Yeah, maybe before the Zombie Apocalypse.

***

            Alec wakes up to a tapping on his shoulder. As he opens his eyes, Isabelle’s hand, layered with leather and bracelets, shoots back into the front seat. Even with the end of the world going on, she’s still fashion forward.

            “You’re _covered_ in blood,” she says, her nose wrinkled. She pulls a Wet Wipe out of her pocket and cleans her hand, before rolling down the window to throw it out. It’s not like there’re garbage trucks anymore. “Anyway, we’re in the residential area. We need to make sure it’s safe before we set up camp.”

            Alec groans, but pulls himself up into a sitting position. He’s a bit groggy from his short nap, and the setting sun is irritating his eyes. He wants nothing more than to go back to sleep, but he’s got to be the one to scout the house. As a male, a sterile one at that, no one will blink twice if he doesn’t go back to the compound. It’s his job to be the one who doesn’t come back, if a choice has to be made.

            Alec rubs his freezing fingers together. He reaches for his quiver and secures it to his back, his bow in hand. He shuffles around the floor until he picks up a flashlight. He and secures his knife as he looks around.

            They’re pulling down a gravel road, a trail of dust marking the path behind them. The sides of the road are shrouded in bushes and sloping foliage, which immediately makes Alec weary. It’s much easier to hide in the shadows of a thicket than in an open field. At the end of the driveway they’re going down there’s an old house, pale blue, with vines climbing one side. The once white deck of the house looks like it’s collapsing, and Alec will have to check under it for danger.

            Magnus pulls to a stop in front of the house and Alec exits the car. He spins in a slow circle, looking for any immediate threats. When he sees none, he checks under the porch. The beam of light leading from his torch reveals an angry grey cat, and the plague can’t be carried from species to species. Alec loops around the house, checking for entry points and roaming zombies. He can’t see any, but it isn’t uncommon for the countryside. The zombies tend to flock to cities, where they can eat each other if there is no fresh flesh.

            Alec enters the house through the boarded up back door. It leads to a small kitchen where the linoleum floor is stained, but not with blood. The splatters speak more of coffee or soda, drippings from turkeys and pork in years past. The cupboards have been torn open, the doors of some of them used to barricade the windows, but there are no threats in sight.

            Alec makes his way to the sitting room. He checks behind a worn couch with tufts of foam slipping out of the covering. There are several spiders, which almost make him shriek, but he holds it in. He doesn’t want Izzy and Magnus assuming the worst and leaving him, all because of a couple satanic _spiders_. He makes a mental note to avoid the couch if they end up spending the night, which they probably will.

            Alec climbs up the stairs to the second floor, relieved to find a bathroom. It has a large bathtub that he’ll be able to wash up in. He closes the bathroom door, and then pushes into a room that must have once been a nursery. He nearly gags at the smell, death decay and rot. There are no flies, indicating that whatever it is, it’s old news. The plague swept through the states years ago, the pandemic nearly unstoppable.

            With a budding sense of horror, Alec crosses the room to a wooden cradle. As he approaches, the stench becomes stronger. He glances inside it. Inside the cradle, swaddled in what looks like a handmade blanket sewn with cows and moons and the name James, is a tiny corpse.

            Alec steadies himself against the cradle, fighting the nausea. He hates finding the corpses of children, toddlers rotting into nothing because once their parents caught the plague, no one came back for them. Alec’s not sure if they couldn’t bear to eat their children, or if they simple forgot, but it’s always hard to see. It’s so much easier to dissociate adults, to treat them like they aren’t human. Like they never had ambitions or goals or their own intricate set of relationships.

            Alec throws open the closet, relieved to find nothing of consequence there. He exits back into the hallway and enters the master bedroom, which is thankfully empty. He would have left himself open, in the nursery, if there’d been a zombie in the house.

He glides silently down the stairs, quickly checking the entryway before opening the front door. He gestures for Magnus and Isabelle to come into the house. It’s safe enough, at least for the night.

            They follow him into the house, weapons at their sides. Magnus has a couple cans of baked beans, which they will share for dinner. They lock the car behind them to keep possible zombies out and pile into the sitting room of the house.

            “We shouldn’t go in the nursery,” Alec says. “But everything else should be fine after I barricade us in. No light after the sun goes down, and we’re all going to stay in the master bedroom tonight. This house has too many windows, and not enough of them are covered.”

            “Okay, mom,” Isabelle rolls her eyes. She doesn’t ask what’s wrong with the nursery, but the way her voice isn’t as light as it usually is implies that she knows. They’ve all seen their fair share of bodies.

            Magnus plops down on the couch, and Isabelle joins him. They start leafing through a wicker basket of magazines, and Alec pushes a cabinet full of china in front of the door. He doesn’t tell Magnus or Isabelle about the spiders behind the couch because he’s the only one sensitive to them. Instead, he goes to the kitchen, where the back entrance is, and barricades that too.

            He returns to the sitting room to find Magnus and Isabelle engrossed in the five year old magazines. “I’m going to see if they still have running water.”

***

            When Alec returns to the downstairs, Magnus and Isabelle are cracking open two of the cans of baked beans. They hold the cans above their heads, shaking them until bits of bean pour out. They don’t trust the silver wear at the house to be clean, and they trust the water to not be contaminated even less. Manners have lost priority to safety now that nearly everyone is dead, or could die at any minute thanks to the plague.

            Alec sits next to Magnus, who hands him his can of beans. Alec gratefully gulps some down, but the taste is off. They taste rotten. He frowns, and hands the can back to Magnus. Magnus takes some, and Alec watches his face for signs of discomfort. There are none, so Alec has to assume the taste is just him. Magnus tells Alec to finish the can off.

            “You must be hungry,” Magnus says. “You nearly died today.”

            Alec _is_ hungry, but the beans aren’t at all appetizing. He stubbornly ignores the protests of his taste buds and finishes the can, leaving the last drops of syrup at to pool a the bottom. Magnus steals some from Isabelle, because he is by far the largest of them all, and says they’ll eat the other two in the morning. Alec knows he won’t be hungry for them come morning.

            There are dark circles under Magnus’s eyes, and the sun has nearly abandoned the horizon, so Alec tells them it’s time to go to bed. No one protests, the day full of stress. Alec leads them up the stairs to the master bedroom, where Isabelle collapses into the bed and immediately starts snoring. Alec pushes one of the bedside tables in front of the door. He hits his shoulder as he pushes the bedside table to the door and has to stifle a scream. He screws his eyes shut as pain radiates, his muscles clenched. He takes a deep breath, then another.

            “You okay?” Magnus asks, right behind him. Alec nods, and finishes creating the barricade. He glances at his sister, who’s still knocked out. She must have been really tired.

            As soon as Alec’s got the nightstand against the door, Magnus wraps his arms around his torso. He pulls Alec’s back to his chest and kisses the back of his neck. They stand like that for a minute in the dying light.

            “Soon we’ll be back at the compound,” Magnus says softly. “You’ll be able to rest. Just one more day.”

            Alec nods and turns around, burying his face in the crook of Magnus’s neck. He breathes in the scent of his boyfriend, the sweat from the days they’ve been out hunting for supplies. He loves the way Magnus smells, like he’s alive, even if he hasn’t bathed in far too long.

            Alec pulls back to meet Magnus’s eyes. Magnus’s hand comes up to his cheek, and he pulls their lips together. The chaste kiss ticks on, a quiet assurance. Magnus tongue licks at Alec’s bottom lip, but Alec pulls away.

            “Not right now,” he says.

Magnus catches his line of sight, eyes on Isabelle. He shrugs and drops it. “Do you want to sleep while I watch?”

            Alec shakes his head. “I slept in the car. Besides, you look exhausted.”

            Magnus gives him a grateful smile before turning to the bed. He lays on top of the comforter, which it’s too hot for. It doesn’t take him very long to fall asleep, and then Alec’s alone.

            Alec sits next to the door. He can see the bed and the open window from his position. He’ll be prepared if one of the windows shatters and a zombie pours into the house. He’ll be ready for anything.

            He can hear Magnus and Isabelle’s steady breaths in the dark. His own breath seems too loud, distracting, almost like a ghost in the night. He closes his eyes and leans his head against the wall, taking deep breaths. After tonight, he’s never going to enjoy this kind of moment again. This is his last chance to be dependable.

            His hand reaches inside the collar of his shirt. He winces as he touches his shoulder, but he runs his fingers over the edges of the wound. His hand comes back with the rusty crust of dried blood and white pus. He’s ready for anything but this.

            Alec stays awake all night, sleep never so much as threatening to overtake him. He knows that’s one of the symptoms, like the chill running through him. It’s the reason he hasn’t shed his leather jacket and can continue to hide the wound. He just has to keep off the change until he can get Isabelle and Magnus to safety.

***

            They set out in the morning. Alec scouts the area to make sure there are no zombies on their path, and the coast is clear. They pile into the car after breakfast, refilling the gas tank from their limited supply of red buckets, and take off. They’re on their way back to the compound now, with hopefully nothing but empty highway ahead of them.

            The drive to the compound is easy, and they play an old CD out of the muffled stereo to break up the boredom. Isabelle sings along to some of the words, and sometimes Magnus joins her. Alec doesn’t, his mind lost to the wilderness surrounding them. The drive back is usually fine, but someone should keep lookout. It’s getting in that’s difficult, the part of the trip that Alec is most vital to.

            Where there are a lot of people, there are a lot of zombies. They’re drawn to fresh meat, though they will eat each other if there’s nothing fresher. A compound with over a hundred people in it, like theirs, is bound to draw a crowd. At any given time, given that nobody has wasted any ammunition recently(and drawn an even larger crowd with the noise), there are usually about sixty undead clawing at the metal fencing surrounding the town.

            The grind of their nails, which never ceases, is a sound that Alec has learned to take comfort in. If they’re not trying to break in, that means they’re already in. In the event of the zombies breaking through the fencing, they’ll have to fortify the mess hall. From there, they won’t last long without access to the gardens. It’s better if they stay outside, and everyone just has to learn to deal with the noise.

            The big deal is that the zombies cannot get past the outer gate. If they do, everyone inside will eventually die. Leaving and returning to the compound isn’t all that easy, because they’ve got to get someone to throw them a rope and pull them up. Often times, it’s a huge mess. The wall is over fifteen feet tall. But it’s the best bet they’ve got, as a door would be way too risky.

            The car is a half-mile away from the compound when they ditch it. Magnus puts the keys in his pockets and slings one of the backpacks around his shoulders, and Izzy follows suit. Alec walks ahead of them, heavy bag biting into his shoulder. He can hardly feel the injury any more, a sure sign that he’ll turn soon.

            Isabelle shoots the flare gun, aiming for the sky. The sound is just loud enough for a zombie to wander through the woods at them, but Alec quickly takes care of it with an arrow to the eye. They creep along to the compound, where a swarm of zombies lurks around the metal barriers.

            The majority of the zombies are pressing on the wall a little to their left. At the top of the wall five armed people stand, taunting them. They yell jeers and flap their arms, banging pots, in an attempt to distract the zombies from the incoming hunting party.

            Further to the right, Alec can see one of his friends, Jace, waving to him. He’s got a rope in one hand, their saving grace. Alec leads his sister and boyfriend towards Jace. There are a couple of zombies roaming outside the compound under Jace. Alec shoots the first one, whom falls over with a _thunk._ The second one he shoots, through the back of the head, falls forward onto the metal. It makes a loud clanging noise, and Alec swears. Several zombies turn towards them, alerted by the sound.

            Alec ushers Isabelle and Magnus in front of him, toward the clear path to Jace. Most of the guards are busy keeping the other zombies occupied, so Alec shoots down as many threats as he can. There are several zombies coming at them now, more than Alec has arrows for. Isabelle and Magnus toss their bags up over the wall, and Isabelle grabs the rope.

            She pulls herself up as the horde hastens towards them. They’re too close, Alec panics, and Magnus isn’t up yet. He lets his last arrow fly, and it takes out a Z that was nearly on top of Magnus. He tears off his backpack and wastes precious seconds getting it over the wall as Magnus starts climbing.

            Alec pulls out his knife, defenses raised. He attacks a zombie going after Magnus, and then neutralizes another with a swift blow. Magnus is halfway up the wall, not quite out of harm’s way, when they descend on Alec.

            Alec fights, not to live, but to keep them away from Magnus. He lunges with his knife at one trying to grab onto the rope. He stabs up the chin of one that practically falls on him, but it’s not use. More and more are coming at him. He’s not going to be able to get out of this, but it’s okay. He was bitten in the supermarket. He’s already dead.

            Alec grabs the rope and throws it back into the compound. He hears Magnus and his sister scream his name as he’s shoved against the wall by the onslaught of undead. They claw at him, a wave of pain and hunger. He’s fresh meat.

            Alec looks up the barrier, and meets Jace’s eyes. Jace gives him a nod, but his eyes are turning bleary. He looks at Magnus and mouths, _I love you_ , before his brain is splattered across the barrier and the nearest zombies. Isabelle has never seen quite so much blood.

            It’s all right, though. He got them home.


End file.
